Firefighters battled a three-alarm blaze inside a church in North Philadelphia on Thursday. The blaze started before 2:30 p.m. Thursday inside The Original Apostolic Faith Church of the Lord Jesus Christ in the 1500 block of North Broad Street. Crews arrived at a fully engulfed building located near Temple University.
- PUB DATE: 3/30/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WPVI-TV 6 ABC.com

The roar of sirens and engines gave way to the wail of bagpipes and the thunder of bass drums. Eyes watered, but not from smoke. Shined shoes and dress blues replaced soiled boots and water-soaked jackets. All this, as hundreds of firefighters from across Pennsylvania and as far away as Boston, Toronto, Kentucky and Chicago gathered to bid a formal farewell to fallen York City firefighters Ivan Flanscha, 50, and Zachary Anthony, 29.
- PUB DATE: 3/29/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: PennLive

House Speaker Tim Armstead has called for a bill that will double the death benefits for emergency personnel who die in the line of duty to be retroactively effective Jan. 1, in light of a crash that killed two members of the Pratt Volunteer Fire Department. In a letter addressed to Gov. Jim Justice, Armstead requested that changing the effective date of Senate Bill 625 “be placed on the call for a special session if one is to be held in the near future.
- PUB DATE: 3/29/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Charleston Gazette

A Chicago Fire Department lieutenant faces a misdemeanor charge after he punched his colleague in the face at a Far South Side fire station, according to authorities. Chicago fire Lt. Leonard Johnson, 53, was charged Wednesday with misdemeanor battery after an argument with a 52-year-old male firefighter descended into a fistfight, according to a Chicago police spokeswoman.
- PUB DATE: 3/29/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Chicago Tribune

The state fire marshal wants Michigan fire departments to report their use and disposal of a chemical-laden firefighting foam that has contaminated state groundwater. The Michigan PFAS Action Response Team (MPART) announced the survey effort on Wednesday, March 28. State Fire Marshal Kevin Sehlmeyer wants to know how much Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF) is, or was, in use around the state and develop a strategy for its disposal, the state says.
- PUB DATE: 3/29/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Mlive.com

The parking lots of Charlotte Fire Department stations are monitored by security cameras — and many are blocked off with gates — because thieves have repeatedly targeted firefighters' personal cars over the years. In December, Charlotte City Council agreed to spend up to $185,000 to outfit the rest of the city's fire stations with security cameras, hoping to cut down on break-ins.
- PUB DATE: 3/29/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Charlotte Observer

City firefighter Frank Walsh is recovering at home after receiving first- and second-degree burns while battling a fire that flashed over in a vacant building early Monday morning. “All things considered, I’m feeling very lucky,” Walsh told the Press of Atlantic City after he was released Tuesday afternoon from the Jefferson Hospital Burn Unit in Philadelphia.
- PUB DATE: 3/28/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Press of Atlantic City

VIDEO - An eight-year-old boy narrowly escaped an Indiana apartment fire Sunday by jumping from a fourth-story window. He was caught by neighbors holding blankets. Two other children, 2-year-old Kailani Gober and 4-year-old Khristopher Gober, died of smoke inhalation and burns, according to the Lake County coroner.
- PUB DATE: 3/28/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WGN-TV 9 WB Chicago

Baltimore’s 911 dispatch system was hacked by an unknown actor or actors over the weekend, prompting a temporary shutdown of automated dispatching and an investigation into the breach, Mayor Catherine Pugh’s office confirmed Tuesday. James Bentley, a spokesman for Pugh, confirmed that the Sunday morning hack affected messaging functions within the computer-aided dispatch, or CAD, system, but said the mayor would not otherwise comment on the matter Tuesday.
- PUB DATE: 3/28/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Baltimore Sun

As flames devoured the North Philadelphia rowhouse beneath her last week, Alita Johnson cowered in a small third-floor bathroom with her father and 3-year-old son, pleading with 911 to send someone to their rescue. Firefighters responded. They extinguished the blaze and rescued other tenants. But when they cleared the scene and packed up to leave, Johnson and her family remained behind – missed and overlooked.
- PUB DATE: 3/28/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: PHILLY.COM

Firefighting foam with a chemical thought to cause cancer and other health problems will be banned in two years for local fire departments and districts in Washington. A new law signed Tuesday bans the group of chemicals that are contaminating some wells in Airway Heights and other water sources near military bases, although it won’t directly affect that contamination.
- PUB DATE: 3/28/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Spokesman-Review

Firefighters are suing the town in federal court alleging that East Greenwich is shorting them on overtime by violating the Fair Labor Standards Act. The suit was filed Friday in U.S. District Court against the town and Finance Director Linda Dykeman. It asks the court to award back pay and legal fees and to declare that the town “willfully and intentionally violated” its obligations to firefighters.
- PUB DATE: 3/27/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Providence Journal

A pregnant Indian River County firefighter, who has been pleading for months for light duty, has finally been given a light duty assignment. Nicole Morris, now 33-weeks pregnant, started asking Fire Chief John King to help her better protect her unborn baby just months into her pregnancy. She originally was not asking for light duty, but the ability to max out the number of shifts she could exchange with other firefighters, wanting to work for them early on in her pregnancy, so they could work for her, in exchange, after she gives birth.
- PUB DATE: 3/27/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WFLX-TV FOX 29 West Palm Beach

Perhaps no other family had such a long run with the Watertown Fire Department as the Lachenauers. Over a 76-year span, the department was served by the family — first by Chief George W. Lachenauer, then later by his two sons, David M. and Ted. That long reign came to an end a few short weeks ago. Battalion Chief David Lachenauer remained on the roster until March 6, when he officially retired.
- PUB DATE: 3/27/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Watertown Daily Times

This week, AT&T has met another monumental contractual milestone by launching and delivering the FirstNet core to the First Responder Network Authority. The input and feedback we received from public safety has come to life with this core. It is the first-ever nationwide LTE enhanced packet core infrastructure built specifically for our nation’s first responder community.
- PUB DATE: 3/27/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: First Responder Network Authority

A former Indian County assistant fire chief was arrested Monday morning and charged with stealing thousands of dollars from the county. Sheriff Deryl Loar said Brian Burkeen, 55, of Fellsmere, used a county credit card to purchase hundreds of tires, valued at at least $300,000. He would then sell the tires and pocket the cash according to the investigation.
- PUB DATE: 3/27/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WPTV-TV NBC 5 West Palm Beach

Two Kanawha County firefighters are dead and two remain hospitalized after an accident Saturday evening on the West Virginia Turnpike. A Pratt Volunteer Fire Department truck was responding to a triple fatality car crash when their truck crashed en route. Deputy Chief Rod Johnson spoke with the media Sunday afternoon to provide an update.
- PUB DATE: 3/26/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WSAZ-TV NBC 3

Support your police and give a "secure retirement for all city employees," say signs on Kirkwood lawns urging a "yes" vote to change the city's retirement system. Support your firefighters and vote "no," say competing signs describing the proposal as unnecessary, permanent and coming at a higher cost.
- PUB DATE: 3/26/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Four Virginia Beach firefighters who were denied promotions last year are suing the city. They claim results of an annual captain’s exam were tainted when a battalion chief gave confidential test information to two firefighters. The lawsuit was filed last week in Circuit Court on behalf of longtime firefighters David Scherrer, Richard Irving, Alexander Wazlak and Mark Bayly, who were among 36 firefighters taking the exam last year.
- PUB DATE: 3/26/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: Norfolk Virginian-Pilot/HamptonRoads.com

Actor Ed Norton took to social media on Saturday to praise the FDNY’s bravery and his film crew’s quick thinking in the wake of a film set inferno that killed a firefighter in Harlem earlier this week. “I have never witnessed firsthand that kind of bravery,” Norton wrote in an Instagram post about the fire.
- PUB DATE: 3/26/2018 12:00:00 AM - SOURCE: WNBC-TV NBC New York